I'll Know
by Lost-Ink
Summary: It is dusk, and Claire is late to meet Sawyer on the beach. ConMama fluff.


**Title:** I'll Know  
**Rating:**PG  
**Characters/Relationships:** Sawyer/Claire  
**Status of fic:** Complete (one-shot)  
**Warnings:** None  
**Disclaimer:** None of this belongs to me.

**I'll Know**

Dusk was beginning to fall over the island. The sun would soon disappear over the horizon, teasing them with the way it fell next to a place they could never reach. The ocean glinted under its light orange shroud, with its customary deep blue visible here and there.

Sawyer played with his cigarette lighter, flicking it on and off, adding another shade of orange to the palette before him. He had quit smoking a week ago, and the habit of playing with his lighter had developed – it helped to pass the time, just as smoking had done.

When they had crashed on the island Sawyer assumed he would have to give up his unhealthy habit eventually, but he had expected it would be because they ran out of cigarettes, but he still had plenty. No, he had quite smoking for an entirely different reason. A reason that was currently breaking the tranquillity of his evening by screaming as loudly as it possibly could.

Sawyer stopped flicking the lighter and looked over to his right. He was sat on the beach but away from camp, so that the people who inhabited it seemed like silent shadows moving ambiguously in the distance. But as he looked back towards it, he saw Claire walking leisurely towards him, holding a sobbing Aaron close to her.

'You're late,' he said, when she drew near enough. Aaron quieted at the sound of his voice, and then, 'What did you bring him for?'

'I couldn't find Sun anywhere, Kate's in the jungle with Jack and…well who else is there? I mean Hurley's a nice enough guy and everything, but I don't think I trust him with my only son.'

'You beg me to spend an evening watching the sunset and being all romantic with you, and when I say I will you arrive late with a screaming baby.'

'I can't just _leave_ him, Sawyer,' Claire scolded, and she took a seat in the sand beside him.

If he was honest with her, it wasn't her lateness or the baby that bothered him. It was that this wasn't the only time the outside world had intruded on them. He would have thought being on an island with a beautiful girl would mean plenty of sunsets, long walks on the beach, and crazy jungle sex. But alas, no. It meant reading to the baby, collecting fruit, going off shooting crazed Others, and to be fair, there had been crazy jungle sex once or twice.

If he was honest with himself, he would have told her about how none of these things really got to him at all deep down. He liked reading to Aaron, it was something his father never did for him. Hell, he liked _Aaron._ He liked collecting fruit, providing for Claire – another thing no one had ever done for him. He had always liked shooting crazed Others. Or anything else for that matter.

What really got to Sawyer was the way that Claire didn't walk across sand with elegance, but stumbled and slipped occasionally. The way that she was far too short for him, to a point where he had to lift her in the air to kiss her if they were standing. It was how she was such a fantastic mother, and how hard she had worked to become that. How she would give him cryptic warnings about the moon being in Libra whenever he set off to do something dangerous. It was the little smirk she got when she could see right through him, and the way she looked in a simple pair of jeans. In truth, the problem was Claire. He was falling for her. He had no cash stake in her future, no reason to stick around. But he wanted to. Somehow, being with her gave him something to lose.

A giggle sounded next to him, and Sawyer was brought out of his thoughts to see Claire smiling brightly, her eyes twinkling.

'What?' He asked, wondering why he was being mocked yet again.

'Nothing. It's just,' she paused, lowering her eyes, letting her smile grow. She looked almost as if she was sharing a secret with herself. 'It's just the way you're looking at me,' she looked back up and met his eyes now. 'I love when you look at me like that.'

Sawyer scoffed, feeling uneasy. Was he so transparent?

'Like what? I wasn't even looking _at_ you, I was just thinking.'

Claire's smile became a smirk, the one that showed him that he definitely was transparent.

'Then you were thinking about me,' she said lightly, and she shifted Aaron so that she could lay her left hand over Sawyer's right one.

'So what if I was? That don't mean it was anything good, you know.'

Then she did something that surprised him. She did not retort with a sunny, optimistic one-liner. She leaned in and kissed him softly before pulling away a little, leaving almost no gap between their lips, their foreheads resting together.

'Claire I-' Sawyer began, but then she kissed him again, just as gently. This time she pulled completely back, and her eyes were a deeper blue than Sawyer had ever seen them.

'You don't have to say anything,' she told him. 'I already know.' Sawyer opened his mouth to speak anyway, but Claire shook her head. 'Don't ever tell me, Sawyer. That's not who you are, it's not either of us. Just look at me, and I'll know.'

Sawyer looked out at the ocean and flicked the cigarette lighter on again. It did not add to the hue of the scene before him now, but instead contrasted against it. The image reminded him of Claire dressed completely in white, appearing through the trees, seeking him out when he had gone for some target practice with Jack. Everything but the flame before him dropped out of focus now, just as everything but Claire had then. He let the flame disappear, and looked back over at her.

They sat for a moment, just looking at one another, until Claire broke into a smile, and kissed him again.


End file.
